Jay Leno may be called as a witness in the Michael Jackson Circus Trial. His lawyers are trying to make sure the gag order affecting those involved in the trial doesn't impact his ability to mine the subject for monologue jokes. Here's the story.

Jeffrey Toobin writes in The New Yorker (which means the link goes away in a few days) about Republican options for using the "nuclear option" to ram legislation through the Senate.

I love how I can just ask a question on this weblog and, nine times outta ten, someone will e-mail me the answer within the hour.

The fine cartoonist, Nate Butler — who I haven't seen since we had lunch at the WonderCon — writes to note that in one edition of the National Cartoonists Society album, Al Smith wrote and even hand-lettered his biography. It says in there that he was born on March 21…so that's a pretty good source of info. Thanks, Nate. Next lunch is on you.

My ol' pal Don Markstein notes my birthday over on his Toonopedia site (thanks, Don) and adds in a page about DNAgents, the comic I co-created with Will Meugniot.

And Don has a question. Once upon a time, there was a cartoonist named Al Smith. He drew the Mutt and Jeff newspaper strip for a measly 48 years. Some sources say that Mr. Smith was born on March 2 while others say March 21. Don would like to set the record straight. Does anyone reading this have any definitive info? Write him or write me if you do.

Those of you who live in Southern California and have been concerned about further rainfall can breathe easier. I've just arranged to have a new roof put on my leaky garage. Once I get it on there, which will be some time next week, there will be very little chance of more precipitation…not unless I do something dumb and get the car washed.

I'm also getting a new door for the garage. It's a two-car garage and I have this metal door on there now, with a wooden frame all the way around it. A rod from the Genie automatic garage door opener is connected to the top of the wooden frame and when you push the button, that rod is pushed or pulled by the motor to open or close the door. The other night when I pushed the button, the rod pulled on the frame and instead of opening the door, it split the frame in two, causing the whole door to buckle and flap out of shape. This is not a good thing.

Applying the strength of ten men, which I have, I managed to get the door all the way open and to move my main driving-around car to the street. Then, applying the strength of ten more men (which I also have), I managed to get the door closed, which is how it will stay until the garage door people come by to install its replacement. This all costs money, so I'll soon be inaugurating the Garage Sale feature on this site. I decided to start it a few months ago, but I didn't figure I'd be using that income to pay for my garage.

Thanks to all of you who've sent Happy Birthday wishes. I'm spending most of today on a script so posting here should be light for a while, but I do appreciate the e-mails. If someone wants to send me a new garage, that would be nice, too.

Here's a video of two excerpts from the memorial service for Graham Chapman, the deceased member of Monty Python. [CAUTION: Contains language.]

And I should have mentioned that that neat page on the Oswald the Rabbit cartoons is the work of David Gerstein and Pietro Shakarian. Individually and collectively, David and Pietro have been responsible for digging up much valuable info on classic animation and have selflessly put it up on the web for all. The Classic Felix the Cat Page is one example. The Columbia Crow's Nest is another.

These are posters from the Oswald the Rabbit cartoons. As you may know, Walter Lantz's company inherited the character when Walt Disney, who started the Oswald series, lost the rights to the character in a dispute with his distributor. What you may not know is that after Walt and before Walter, another studio produced more than two dozen cartoons of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. It was the Mintz Studio, composed largely of Disney artists who'd been hired away behind Walt's back. How were the cartoons they made? I don't know. I've never seen one…and neither have a lot of animation buffs. But I have seen a terrific new wing of Jerry Beck's website that documents what is known about this "lost" body of work. This is another one of those Internet projects that make you say, "Boy, I'm glad somebody did this." And who knows? One of these days, I may even get to see one of these cartoons.

Fred Kaplan on why the DVDs from Warner Home Video look better than those from many other companies.

Several folks have written me to say that Sandra Dee was not in the Oscarcast "In Memoriam" segment because it was for 2004 deaths and she died in 2005. This is not the case. Yeah, she passed away on 2/20/05 but Ossie Davis died on 2/4/05 and he was in there. The rule, as I understand it, is that the montage is for those who've left us since the last montage was assembled. Most likely, this year's was already finished when Ms. Dee died — which, by the way, was the same day John Raitt died — and I guess the decision was made not to go back in and re-edit to include them. Presumably, they would have done this for someone a lot more prominent.

It has also been pointed out to me that John Vernon didn't make it in. And while Fred Ebb's most important work was for the stage, he did write for movies and had two Oscar nominations, one of them only two years ago. He also co-wrote "New York, New York" which, amazingly, was not nominated for an Academy Award but which may well be the most popular song ever written for a motion picture. (The winner that year was "You Light Up My Life." When was the last time you heard that one?)

Someone else wrote to ask me who I'd like to see host the Oscars. If it were up to me, I'd ask Albert Brooks or Tom Hanks…and perhaps they have. But if Steve Martin were willing to do it again, I'd give him the job for life.

And now, I've taken the extra "L" out of Hilary Swank's first name. Thanks to Clifford Weimer Jr. for pointing that one out to me.

Just fixed the spelling of Martin Scorsese's name in several earlier entries. I thought it was "Scorcese" and a Google search shows that a lot of other folks who oughta know better think so, too. But Charlie Eckhaus is a smart guy and he alerted me. Thanks, Charlie.

Former California governor (now mayor of Oakland) Jerry Brown has set up his own weblog, and he seems to be actually writing it.

Ratings for last night's Oscars seem to be up a bit over the last few years. That oughta make the folks at ABC happy because they probably felt they had an uninteresting batch of nominations this year, and that the average viewer out there really didn't care that much if Clint beat Martin or if Hilary beat Kate. There was no blockbuster, high-grossing film in competition or no backstory that might yield some great emotional moment. The only real suspense was whether Chris Rock would spin wildly out of control, which may have been why that possibility was hyped as much as it was. As I said, I thought Rock did a decent job, though I'm guessing he won't be asked back for quite a while. He may have exhausted his value just by not saying something that outraged America and caused the Kodak Theater to implode.

Reading Internet forums this morn, I sense a bit of disappointment that nothing that memorable occurred — no wildly ridiculous outfits, no over-the-top political moments, no tearful meltdowns from the winners, no gasping surprise when some envelope was opened. Who would have thought Chris Rock would preside over one of the safest Oscar ceremonies in recent memory?

Final thoughts for the evening…

• Shelly Goldstein just called to point out another notable omission from the "In Memoriam" montage: Sandra Dee. I know she only died last week but they could have included her if they'd made the effort.
• They cut Hilary Swank off in mid-acceptance speech but seemed to let Jamie Foxx go on as long as he wanted. I think the rule should be that you get 60 seconds unless you mention your agent, manager or lawyer, in which case you get 20.
• If someone tells you that it's unfair that Scorsese has never won, ask them just when he should have won and why that should affect this year. The Oscars are not a cumulative exercise. At least in theory, it's one competition at a time, and your past excellence does not make your current effort the Best Picture of the Year. He probably should have won for Taxi Driver (he wasn't nominated that year) but when he was up for Raging Bull, he was beaten by Robert Redford for Ordinary People, which was not an unworthy effort. I would have given it to him for Goodfellas over that year's winner, Kevin Costner for Dances With Wolves…but that's history. They shouldn't not give it to Clint this year because Martin got swindled in 1990.
• And no matter what, he's still Martin Scorsese. Even without an Oscar, he's still honored, well-paid and able to make the movies he wants, pretty much the way he wants. In the pantheon of Great Injustices, this doesn't even make the top One Million. Besides, the way he's going, he still has time to either make a couple more Oscar-class movies…or at least win a Lew Wasserman look-alike contest.
• One thing the show lacks for me is a sense of "Old Hollywood" somewhere in there. If it were up to me, I'd have at least one award presented by someone who hasn't made a movie lately but used to be in a lot of them…say, Jerry Lewis or Elizabeth Taylor. As it is, we seem to only get the annual audience shot of Mickey Rooney.
• It was a very fast-moving Oscarcast…almost too fast in spots. I know people hate long acceptance speeches, especially from "nobodies." But that guy winning for Best Sound Production…you're seeing maybe the high moment in his life, and perhaps his first taste of true, meaningful recognition. Clint Eastwood has had plenty of honors…and even if he went home without an Oscar, he'd still be Clint Eastwood. I'd rather see the musical numbers trimmed and the time given over to letting the winners say a little more than that they thank everyone else who worked on the project and that they love their spouse.
• I thought Chris Rock did an okay job as host…better than Whoopi or Dave, not as good as Billy or Steve. Actually, as they increasingly streamline the show, the host becomes largely irrelevant after about the first half-hour. I expect that those who were looking to be outraged at the "Hollywood elite" showing its contempt for traditional values will pounce on the Bush jokes and condemn the whole broadcast. So they should be happy with it, even as they proclaim how much they hated it.

Well, that's it from Tinsel Town. I'm going back to working on a screenplay which will probably not be nominated…next year, or ever.